Sunday, November 04, 2012

Tangle Remix, Vol. I + PUFFLE

I work best when I'm (properly caffeinated and) avoiding something else I should be doing. Yesterday, this room was a disaster. Major upheaval going on in here. I've got at least a couple of hours of work left to do in it, so naturally, I'm diving into something I would rather be doing, and avoiding the mess altogether. There's just something about procrastination that gets my creativity crankin'.

This is a really rewarding artistic exercise for me, taking tangle patterns I already know and kneading/squishing them into something new. The mission: pick two patterns, adopt at least one element from each, and make a new pattern out of the pieces. Like a lot of things I post on my blog, these tangle patterns were more of an exercise in creativity than relaxation. As far as true Zentangle patterns go, these variations are probably not repetitive enough to get fully submerged in the zen. I dunno... maybe I could still lose myself in them for a while. Or if all else fails, I'm pretty sure I could just lose myself in this room. God knows I haven't seen my desk in weeks.

Pardon the randomness of the pattern layouts; this post has been in the making for a looong time.

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Tangle remix no. 1:

Eylet & Ribbon (Lori Howe) &

Crescent Moon (Zentangle)

Tangle remix no. 2:

Assunta (Zentangle) &

Paizel (Angie Vangalis, CZT)

Tangle remix no. 3:

Huggins (Zentangle) &

Hypnotic (Elena Hadzijaneva)

Tangle remix no. 4:

Afterglo (Carole Ohl, CZT) &

Cadent (Zentangle)

Tangle remix no. 5:

Assunta (Zentangle) &

Paradox (Zentangle)

Tangle remix no. 6:

W2 (Zentangle) &

Dansk (Margaret Bremner)

Author's note: As much as I love the above remix, it's not technically correct.

The basic shape/flow of Prestwood, aura'ed to the nth degree like Cruffle. I love this pattern because it's curvy and flowy, and has natural shading even before the pencil comes along. All of those converging lines naturally darken the parts that would be shaded anyway. Wiiin.

The official how-to:

Some tips for a perfect Puffle:

• Begin and end every inner aura at the same point within each section, down in the 'valley' where all the lines converge.

• Sometimes closing the shapes all the way makes that first outline skew a little bit too far in one direction or another. A couple of 'lobes' can always be added to the next section to compensate, as you can see in the examples above.

• When you draw that first continuous outline, close the loops as much as possible. The more open that space is, the harder it is to add in the auras so they look right:

• As with Cruffle, the step that most determines whether your pattern will look right is the FIRST loop inside the initial outline (shown below in pink). If there is an evenly-spaced gap between the first outline and that first loop all the way around the curve, the rest of the pattern will look fine. Getting that first aura right is like using auto-tune for this tangle (only with less cheating!). Notice that the middles (the last stroke) are not even or perfect, but it doesn't matter because that gap in between the initial outline and the first aura within it are evenly spaced.

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Here are my responses to the challenges you left me in the comments:

Virginia's was a tough one...

...so I faked it. :oD

And here we have Mooka on a stick.

This is me reporting live from my couch... sorry this isn't scanned in like it should be. Been sick the last few days, and my camera phone was just so much closer than my scanner.

(I'm on antibiotics, and they make me lazy.)

Thanks for posting these challenges for me... they were really fun!

Here's an updated version of Purk vs. Squid WITH pencil guides... Purk looks infinitely better when you're working within a shape and not just drawing it freeform (like the one above).

Wow - Sandy, what an awesome post! LOL, Dr. Suess was exactly what I thought of with that Mooka/Bunzo combo!! Love love love that first Henna Drum/Shattuck Combo - and can't wait to try Puffle! My faves vary a lot but I'm currently favoring Mooka (ok, I always favor Mooka - my very first exposure to Zentangle was the Mooka Youtube) and Verdigogh.

hahaha! sandy, this is one awesome blog post! i love the cruffle-puffle thing, gotta try it out! and i really like the henna drum/shattuck mix. "dr.seussy worm-swastika" whoa! hahahaha! let's see - squid and purk are my 2 current favorites :) show me something cool! and i'll post it on my blog and my facebook zentangle pages :)

sandy - these are incredible! i saw that someone else had already pinned them on pinterest, so i added them to one of my "how-to" boards. if you don't like that let me know and i'll un-pin them. whoot! whoot! these are fantastic!

Oh my, oh my.... these are absolutely mind boggling! I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE what you have done! Please keep sharing... some of my current favorites are ornamato, scrolled feather, dragonair, Hi-C's....

What fun this is! I kept wondering what on earth you'd come up with next? I love them all! I think my favourite tangles are Cubine, Footlites and Planateen and Sonnenband, but I also love Bilt! Any chance of combining any of these?

Thanks for a brilliant post. I really enjoyed it, and will be back to see what else you come up with!!

I really like the Mooka/Bunzo combination, as well as Henna Drum/Shattuck (the tall, thin one). I've tried to combine a couple of combinations, but not with the success you've had, Sandy.How about combining Ojo and Betweed? Tried that, and it's really tough, but I'm not a CZT.Joyce

Thank you so much for sharing this great post. So inspiring and enjoyable. I just adore your style and wit. I've never thought of Assunta as an open pattern that could be filled in with another, so that's a great idea for me to try. And here's your Challenge: although I am not good at them at all, I like Banners (or Ribbons), and Auraknot. Looking forward to your combo with anticipation! Thank you again.

Wow-ee Wow - this is the most creative experimentation of zentangles I 've seen to date and I'm blown away - love your style and your generosity in sharing so much of your tips and hints- I definitely will have to try to do some pairings - hmm does that mean wine with zens - might work!! - thanks again, loved this posting -

Hi, SandyYour mixtures of different tangle patterns are awesome. I think you have this idea in your "Totally Tangle" book which I love.How do you choose which tangles to put together since there are so many to choose from?

While I appreciate the compliment, I'm not the Sandy with published works. Pretty much everything I come up with either goes on this blog or in my ever-expanding binder of tangle patterns.

My goal is to combine different pieces of patterns, not necessarily to put one within another. Although it sometimes works out that way; kinda depends on the patterns I'm playing with. So far the ones I've combined just feel like they have a lot of potential to turn into something else. The ones that have consistently- spaced open sections are usually promising, but it just depends.

Thanks for all of your kind comments and challenges. Wow, way to yank me out of my comfort zone! These will keep my busy for a while :o) Look for the rest of your challenges in a future post... I can't guarantee success but I'll take a crack at every one!

Puffle is fun. I've used it in the 'random' form and have just posted it on my blog for today's Art Every day Month tangle. And I really love what you've done with combining tangles! Really delightful!

I feel I must offer a 'correction' however, to how you've shown the tangle Dansk. One thing about Dansk is that the Auras never meet, as in your example, but simply echo the 'droplet and stem'. It's here in case you want to check: http://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.ca/2012/01/dansk-tangle-instructions.html

Hi Sandy, Were you able to do this when we were in RI to get certified? If so, I wish you had been my seating partner. This is so very cool what you have done with combining tangles. This shows you have a very creative mind, even on antibiotics. LOL I just published my blog & will add this to my links. What fun & so amazing, beautiful, inspiring.......WOW!!!!!!!!!Thanks for sharing & waking me up to some new fun ideas!!!

To be honest, I don't think it would have occurred to me to try remixing tangle patterns then, because nearly all of the ones I use were still really new to me then. I was (and am) still learning. Being more familiar with a lot of the tangle patterns (having a better idea of what's out there already and what I haven't seen before) has made me more comfortable with deconstructing them.

What a fun exercise to extend the creative mind to create new tangles. Love all of them. I can't wait to play with some on my own now. First I must finish putting my binder of ATC sizes tangles together.

I am just starting to zentangle and found your site while surfing. It is amazing! I have bookmarked it in a tangle area. I hope I can some day get half way between where I am now and where you are! Wonderful stimulus!

Sandy, I am completely new to Zentangling and your blog is fabulous! Thank you for all your creativity and wit! Let me tell ya, my creativity is currently crankin'...wanna guess the state of my office? LOL Anyway, thanks! ~Amy

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what is zentangle?

Zentangle is a method of creating intricate artwork by drawing structured patterns, one line at a time. It brings out latent creativity, increases focus, boosts self-esteem, and provides an artistic outlet that is simple, inexpensive, and portable. Focusing on the task at hand so completely creates a kind of vacant awareness in the mind, an open door that allows creativity to pour through. This art is a beautiful byproduct of complete mental immersion in the process of 'tangling'.
The Zentangle® method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted.